LLALA.

I will not weary my reader with an account of our debarkation, less
remarkable as it was for the "pomp and circumstance of war" than for
incidents and accidents the most absurd and ridiculous--the miserable
boats of the peasantry, the still more wretched cattle employed to drag
our artillery and train wagons, involving us in innumerable misfortunes
and mischances. Never were the heroic illusions of war more thoroughly
dissipated than by the scenes which accompanied our landing! Boats and
baggage-wagons upset; here, a wild, half savage-looking fellow swimming
after a cocked hat--there, a group of ragged wretches scraping sea-weed
from a dripping officer of the staff; noise, uproar, and confusion every
where; smart aid-de-camps mounted on donkeys; trim field-pieces "horsed"
by a promiscuous assemblage of men, women, cows, ponies, and asses.
Crowds of idle country-people thronging the little quay and obstructing
the passages, gazed upon the whole with eyes of wonderment and surprise,
but evidently enjoying all the drollery of the scene with higher relish
than they felt interested in its object or success. This trait in them
soon attracted all our notice, for they laughed at every thing; not a
caisson tumbled into the sea, not a donkey brought his rider to the
ground, but one general shout shook the entire assemblage.

If want and privation had impressed themselves by every external sign on
this singular people, they seemed to possess inexhaustible resources of
good humor and good spirits within. No impatience or rudeness on our
part could irritate them; and even to the wildest and least civilized
looking fellow around, there was a kind of native courtesy and
kindliness that could not fail to strike us.

A vague notion prevailed that we were their "friends;" and although many
of them did not clearly comprehend why we had come, or what was the
origin of the warm attachment between us, they were too lazy and too
indifferent to trouble their heads about the matter. They were satisfied
that there would be a "shindy" somewhere, and somebody's bones would get
broken, and even that much was a pleasant and reassuring consideration;
while others of keener mould reveled in plans of private vengeance
against this landlord or that agent--small debts of hatred to be paid
off in the day of general reckoning!

From the first moment nothing could exceed the tone of fraternal feeling
between our soldiers and the people. Without a